Grilled Pork belly "Kakuni" 豚の角煮焼き

Whenever we go to our near-by gourmet grocery store, I cannot resist buying a block of pork belly. The last time was not an exception and I made the usual  "kakuni" 豚の角煮. We restricted the servings to one small piece at a time.  I decided to vary how I served it.

Recently, I found out that there were two cookbooks on Izakaya cuisine in English and bought them. One is called “Izakaya Japanese barfood” and the other is called ”Izakaya Hawaii, Tokkuritei cooking”.  I am planning to post them on the Izakaya cookbook section of this blog soon ("soon" could mean in several months). Flipping over the pages of these cookbooks, I saw a crispy grilled pork belly dish in which the meat was first braised in liquid and then grilled. Since I already had "kakuni" made up, I decided to grill it.

After I warmed up the kauni in the broth I grilled it in the toaster oven (on broil). For the sake of convenience, I skewered one piece of pork belly with two bamboo skewers so that I could easily turn over to cook the other side. I covered the pre-soaked bamboo skewers and also the exposed parts of the skewers with pieces of aluminum foil. Upon reflection I could have just grilled the meat and put the skewers on later. Oh, well.

In any case, this method adds a crunchy crust to this fatty pork. This is definitely worthwhile variation of pork belly "kakuni".

Daikon wrapped rice with diakon greens 大根葉の混ぜご飯

With this dish I I used up all the daikon greens I had left over. The idea came from "Izakaya Hawaii Tokuritei cooking". While the picture in the book showed the rice wrapped in a sheet of diakon, instructions for the presentation were not included in the recipe. So I had to “wing-it”. Since I was in innovation mode I also rearranged the presentation to my preference rather than those shown in the picture. From the picture, in the absence of instructions. I was not sure if the daikon was cooked or raw. In any case here is my version; Daikon green rice wrapped in simmered daikon sheets topped with nori and crispy jako (which was left over from another dish I made at the same time).

The picture below shows what the dish looked like before I put on the toppings.

This is a simple concoction. I mixed blanched and finely chopped daikon greens with dried bonito flakes or "katusobishi" 鰹節 shavings (I used the kind that comes in a small plastic pouch) dressed in soy sauce and sesame oil (to taste, dry bonito flakes do absorb soy sauce)．I mixed this with cooked rice in a bowl.

I shaved the Daikon in the manner of "katsura muki" 桂剝き a bit thicker than for thinly julienned "tsuma" つま granish for sashimi (see below). I boiled it for 10 minutes in water with some raw rice then let it cool. I did not further season it (just because I got lazy but I could have simmered in in light colored soy sauce, salt, sugar or mirin). The sheets broke into several pieces when I tried to take them out of the pan. On hindsight either I should have cooked them less or cut the daikon a bit thicker. Using a ring mold, I placed the strips of daikon inside the mold lining the inner surface. I then pressed the seasoned rice into the center and made a tightly packed disk of the rice with the daikon sheets on the periphery. I then gently removed the ring mold. I briefly microwave it just before serving so that the daikon and rice were warm.

The daikon needed some seasoning but overall this dish was good as a “shime” 〆 or ending dish for the evening. The topping also added flavors and textures to the rice. The daikon greens are somewhat like mustard greens and have a very slight sharp (not hot) taste and the combination worked very well.

Daikon greens, tofu stir fry 大根葉、豆腐、油揚の炒め物

This is another small dish I made from the daikon greens one evening. This is very simple and quick but a perfect drinking snack.

The amount of ingredients is all arbitrary, but I used enough to make two small servings such as the one seen above.

Daikon greens 大根葉: This was from the same blanched daikon greens I used for several other dishes. I just chopped them up finely to make about 4 tbs.
Tofu 豆腐: I used silken tofu but any tofu will do. I used about 1/4 block. I first wrapped it in a paper towel and microwaved it for about 45 seconds (800KW). This is to remove excess moisture from tofu. I then cut the tofu into small cubes (half an inch).
Abura-age 油揚げ: I thawed a small deep-fried tofu pouch or "koage" 小揚げ in hot water, squeezed out the moisture and halved it and then thinly julienned.
Seasoning: Dark sesame oil (1/2 tbs), soy sauce (1 tsp), mirin (1/2 tsp), sake (1tsp) and Japanese one flavored red pepper flakes ("Ichimi" tougarashi 一味唐辛子).

I placed a small non-stick frying pan on medium flame and put in about 1/2 tbs of dark sesame oil. When the oil got hot I put in the cubes of tofu. I should have kept it moving but I got distracted. As a result, one side stuck to the bottom of the pan (which I eventually worked into the dish by degrazing with sake and mirin). After a few minutes or when the surfaces of the tofu were slightly brown, I added the abura-age and the daikon greens and kept stirring for one more minute. I then added the sake,  mirin and scraped off the whenever brown bits were stuck on the bottom of the pan. I then added the soy sauce and kept stirring until all the liquid was mostly gone. I served the dish in a small bowl and sprinkled with the Japanese tougarashi powder.

This is nothing special but the combination worked well. The subtle but distinctive heat from the Japanese red pepper powder really made this dish perfect with a sip of sake.

Cold tofu topped with daikon greens and crispy Jako 掬い豆腐の大根葉とカリカリじゃこ乗せ

This is another small dish made with daikon greens. This time I happened to have soft tofu,  "Blowing in the wind Jonny" and decided to top the tofu with the daikon greens and dried crispy small fish or "jako" 雑魚, which is a variation on the theme of cold tofu with garnish.

I thawed  the "jako" blotting out the excess moisture with a paper towel. I then fried it in a small amount of sesame oil (below left) until the jako became crispy (1-2 minutes). I had prepared the daikon greens previously; blanched then shocked in ice water with the moisture wrung out (below right). I chopped the daikon green finely and mixed in a small amount of undiluted concentrated noodle sauce (from the bottle) and a splash of sesame oil.

I scooped the tofu out of the package into a small bowl and topped it with the seasoned daikon greens. I then placed a small mound of crispy "jako" on top. I added a small amount of the noodle sauce around the tofu in the bottom of the bowl.

There is nothing special about this dish but the quality of tofu was rather good with a nice creamy texture and almost peanut-like soy bean flavor. The creaminess of the tofu was in contrast to the pleasant crunchiness of the topping. The sauce and daikon greens gave a burst of crunch and pleasant bitterness.

Miso soup with Daikon and daikon greens 大根と大根葉の味噌汁

When I find daikon 大根 with the greens still attached like this (below), I know the daikon  is very fresh since the greens are the first to go--wilting very quickly. Diakon is usually sold with the greens trimmed off. Not that the greens are anything special, however, when I see the fresh greens still attached, I have to use it somehow since it is rather a rare event.

Since it was lunch time when I came back from the Japanese grocery store and I had to use the greens immediately before they wilted, I decided to use them in miso soup. In addition, I thought the soup would go well with the package of rolled and Inari sushi 太巻き，いなり寿司 I had also found at the store. (I have not seen rolled sushi at the grocery store since the close of "Daruma" so when I saw it at the store we now frequent, I decided to try it).

For two servings of miso soup, I used two stalks of daikon greens and one half inch round of daikon. I finely chopped the greens and briefly blanched them then shocked them in ice water and squeezed out the excess moisture. I sliced the daikon rounds thinly, then julienned (below).

Beside these two items, I also thinly sliced aburaage 油揚げ (half a small or "koage" 小揚げ) which was first defrosted in running hot water and then the moisture squeezed out.

For broth, I could have used granulated "instant" broth but I used a dashi pack (mixture of kelp and bonito flakes). I made more than I needed for the soup and kept the remainder for later use.

I simmered the julienned daikon for 5 minutes in the broth. I put the aburaage, then dissolved in miso using a sieve and spoon specially made for dissolving miso (miso-koshi 味噌濾し) to taste. I then put in the daikon greens and let the soup come to a boil and immediately shut off the flame.

The miso soup was quite good and the Daikon green added nice color.

In addition to usual stuff such as seasoned shiitake and kanpyou, the futomaki contained boiled spinach (no seasoning) and pink and sweet fish flakes called "sakura denbu" 桜田麩. (The pink fish flakes reminded me of the futomaki my mother used to make since they were one of the ingredients she used).The Japanese omelet was made in a very amateurish way. The rice lacked any vinegar taste. Since unlike Daruma this grocery store does not have a kitchen I suspect this was made for the store by someone such as the wife of a Japanese visitor working nearby. Of course, I could have made it   myself but the convenience of buying some for lunch is nice.

Octopus three ways 鮹、三種類

Recently I saw a rather good looking boiled (probably previously frozen and thawed) octopus leg (see the second picture, below) at our Japanese grocery store. So, that evening, I served octopus three ways. I may have been influenced by watching episodes of “Yasuko Kuramoto” 倉本康子 in “Onna sakaba hourouki”  女酒場放浪記 in which she always orders “tako” たこ or octopus if it is available.
1. Deep fried octopus たこの唐揚
The octopus leg I purchased is shown in the picture below, upper left. I cut the middle portion of the leg into sizable chunks or “butsugiri” ぶつ切り and marinated in a sake and soy sauce mixture (1:1 ratio, shown below upper right) for 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator. I removed the octopus pieces from the marinade, blotted them dry with a paper towel and dredged them in potato flour (below, lower left). I then simply deep fried them in hot oil for 4-5 minutes (below, lower right).
I served them with a wedge of lemon. The pieces had a nice crust but they were sort of chewy. I do not mind “chewy” but my wife was not particular fond of this dish.

2. “sumiso-ae” たこの酢味噌和え (below right) and
3. “sashimi” たこの刺身with soy sauce and wasabi (below right).

I posted sumiso-ae previously. I used mostly the tip portion of the octopus cut into small chunks. The dressing is a mixture of saikyou-miso 西京味噌, Japanese hot mustard, rice vinegar or “karashi sumiso” からし酢味噌.

For the sashimi, I used the thickest portion of the leg, cut very thinly diagonally with a wavy pattern (action). Of course, I used freshly thawed “real” wasabi. (They must have changed something with the tube wasabi because the current ones are much easier to squeeze out).
I think this was enough “tako” for one evening. We finally can use our own “perilla” leaves or “aojiso” 青じそ since it is growing profusely in our herb garden now.

Vermilion Snapper baked in miso and butter 鯛のバーター味噌味オーブン焼き

Since the "nitsuke" or simmered vermilion snapper was not a great success, I was pondering what I would do with the second fish. I thought of "papillote" (baked in parchment paper) but the fish was too big for the width of parchment paper I had. So I abandoned that idea. I could just bake or grill it but that was too mundane. So at the last moment, I used aluminum foil to make a pouch and seasoned it with miso and butter as I often cook shimeji or enoki mushrooms on the grill.

I used whatever vegetables were at hand; I used onion, shiitake mushroom, and green asparagus. I first put a long piece of aluminum foil on a large, rimmed cookie sheet (just in case juices spilled out). I made the piece long enough so that after folding it in half it would accommodate the entire length of the fish. I then made a bed of sliced onions (1 small or 1/2 large), asparagus, stem ends removed and skin peeled from the stalk, and sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms (5 large) (#1 below). I then placed the fish on top of the bed of vegetables (#2).
Miso sauce: In a small bowl, I added brown miso (4 tbs), sugar (1 tbs), mirin and sake in 1: 1 ratio until the miso reached a consistency I could smear on the skin of the fish without having it run down the sides. I also added a small amount of soy sauce for no reason. I smeared the miso concoction on the top of the fish and placed thin pats of cold unsalted  butter on top (total of about 2 tbs) (#3 below).
I folded the aluminum foil in half which covered the fish and vegetables loosely leaving enough space for expansion. I crimped the two wider sides and the end to make a tightly sealed pouch and baked it in a preheated 400F convection oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, some of the miso mixture was still clinging to the top of the fish but a nice sauce had developed on the bottom of the pouch with liquid coming from the vegetables and fish (#4). I gently scraped the miso from the skin of the fish and mixed it into the accumulated liquid on the bottom to further expand the sauce.

After placing the fish on a serving plate, I served the vegetables on either side of the fish (the first picture).

This turned out to be a much much better way to cook this fish than the previous method I had used (simmered or "nituske"). After my wife deboned the fish and served the meat and the vegetables on individual plates, I added a small mound of rice on the side and poured the sauce from the bottom of the aluminum foil pouch over the rice and fish.

The fish tasted much richer than it had when cooked the previous way--with sweet (not too sweet) miso flavor. We did not actually taste the butter but it definitely added to the rich flavor and texture to the fish. This was a very satisfying dish.